Think Twice Finance

Damn You, McCain!

It happens every eight years. After watching eight years of the last President, I have inevitably, as always, resolved never to vote for another politician. You can’t trust them; they do whatever will get them and their party through the next election; they say what they don’t mean; they mean what they don’t say. And for God’s sake, they usually can’t even keep it in their damn pants.

But somehow, every eight years, one of the candidates hooks me in. And this year it’s happened – again – completely out of left field – again. John McCain, who even claims the economy isn’t his thing, has hooked me with his banking policy speech of March 25^th.

This speech was so wrong on so many levels that it was perfect. He said he really didn’t think the government had much business helping out stupid borrowers, stupid lenders, and stupid investors. A New York Times reporter found this view “deeply disturbing.” (Anything a New York Times reporter finds deeply disturbing can’t be all bad. [What is the phrase “deeply disturbing” doing in a “report” of a speech, anyway? Only New York Times reporters are allowed to be that arrogant.]) This McCanian thought reminded Hillary Clinton of Herbert Hoover. I love it when Hillary Clinton is reminded of anyone other than Hillary Clinton. Barak Obama didn’t agree with the speech for a reason that sounded really good and different, but that I couldn’t really put my finger on. It’s his way.

What really shook me to my very foundations was that McCain suggested the accountants should be allowed to sort out appropriate banking practices in the wholesale mortgage market. Weird and wonderful. I suspect his advisors may have told him that the accounting profession had already proposed to straighten out the banking system once, in the aftermath of the Enron crisis, when accountants introduced FAS Rule 46. That proposal outlawed the disastrous mortgage conduit, the gaping maw into which all those risky mortgages were stuffed; only to have their decision reversed by a Federal Reserve regulation, resulting in corrupt reinstatement of the risky conduits in “revised” Rule 46R.

But what voter, or for that matter how many politicians, are going to understand the importance of giving the accountants the upper hand over the glorified bank lobby that we call Federal Bank Regulators? None and fewer than none. Hardly the stuff that carries war heroes to election victories.

So that’s how he did it. He’s going to force me to vote for President again, for what I swear to God is going to be the last time. However, he’s deeply disturbed The New York Times and reminded Hillary Clinton of someone other than herself. That can’t be good for his electoral chances.